Now, I am not a genius but I have looked at the disc drive on a spare laptop using Ubuntu. Linux is harder to understand than Klingon but I have persevered. I have managed to find that the Seagate drive itself is kaput. It was clicking and chattering so as I could not see it with any disc management software in either windows or linux I took the lid off and sure enough there is a nice furrow close the the centre spindle on the top platter and a lot of fine filings floating about. I am not worried about the data on the old disc as I can restore it from DVD's I have stored away. Tedious but a simple solution.

Now I want to rebuild the NAS with a decent reliable drive so obviously I need to use a new 1TB drive which I have and I formatted it in linux ext4 format using Part Magic - a fantastic but dangerously powerful piece of software to get started but in spite of reading several experts methods of getting the MBR etc installed on the disc It becomes clear to me that the "experts" are too expert in that they assume everybody is totally conversant with linux. So how the hell do you do it in simple terms ? I have the files to do it but such things as "does the memory stick need to be formatted in linux format first" before the files are put on it are not clear as are the necessary methods to install it.

HELP !!!!!!!!!!!

Also, does anybody know what the USB socket on the back of the unit is for ? There seems to be no information on this so if it's of no use why is it fitted ?

minorman wrote:in spite of reading several experts methods of getting the MBR etc installed on the disc It becomes clear to me that the "experts" are too expert in that they assume everybody is totally conversant with linux.

If you are referring to this instructions, can you please tell what is unclear, what you did, and what was the result?

does anybody know what the USB socket on the back of the unit is for ?

When I remember well you can connect an external disk, which can also be shared over the network.

USB socket, thanks for that info. I presume the extra HDD or memory stick would have to be formatted in a compatible linux system. I was hoping however that it would be a means of getting a new firmware loaded. I see the slightly different "cloud edition" allows this.

Re expert instructions. I have looked at the commands which I have found in the past on this website and there are gaps between certain letters and strokes (/) etc shown but it is unclear whether they are gaps between letters, real gaps (_) and also I have found it difficult to do things such as format a drive and load the MBR etc as it is what I would describe as "suitably vague". I have a version of ubuntu loaded on to a stand alone laptop but I get the feeling that not all the functionality is there and that I would have to find and load additional programme modules in order to achieve the right result.

Bit of an update. I found it impossible to get through the processes needed with the linux operating system. I found I could do everything except copy files from one physical disc to another as I didn't have the rights to do it.

SOLUTION. I took the quick cowards way out and purchased another Iomega drive for £8 on ebay which is working and I have cloned this drive using Part magic to get the replacement 1TB HDD i purchased working in my old Iomega. I have also created another backup clone on another older 1TB HDD and will keep this stored away. The only problem I might have is that the MAC codes might all be the same but I have not tried this yet.

All nicely working now, but here is another interesting challenge. The Iomega software gives me access to the five directories on the HDD and the one I am interested in is Movies. I have converted over 100 DVD's into MP4 files and put them in the movies directory. Definitely all in the movies directory when I map the drive into windows My Computer. The problem is, when I access the NAS via my Panasonic TV setup only very few files appear in the movies directory (and some cannot be played even though the TV setup is supposed to recognise MP4) whilst the rest of the recorded MP4 files appear in the Music directory according to the TV setup and can of course not be "played".